DUMB IDEAS ON SAFETY

IS BANNING ASSAULT WEAPONS THE REAL ANSWER TO PUBLIC SAFETY,

DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR A MINORITY OF GUN DEATHS?

Now, there are many opinions about what an assault weapon actually is, and whether they should or should not be legal. While the term is sometimes conflated with "assault rifle," an assault weapon is specifically a semi-automatic firearm with a detachable magazine and pistol grip. It is not an automatic weapon. It does not refer to machine guns.

But the fact of the matter is that the hyper focus on mass shootings by the news and the media has brought the issue of assault weapons to the public consciousness. In reaction to these horrible scenes captured in the media, many people are not calling for an assault weapons ban. They believe that this would stop violent crime.

Yet would banning assault weapons really result in less crime? The truth is that America has already been down this road before. Between 1994 and 2004, the assault weapons ban did little to change the statistics on gun violence. In fact, before the ban was activated, rifles with military style features were only responsible for two percent of gun crimes nationwide (New York Times). During the ban, the number of assault weapons recovered by local police lowered to one percent, from the previous two percent. So really, there wasn't much of a difference being made.

The other fact is that 'big scary military rifles' don't kill the majority of the 11,000 Americans being murdered with guns each year. Handguns do. According to FBI data, in 2012, only 322 people were killed with rifles. Compare this to CDC death records of 2013, where 371 Americans died of diseases relating to the appendix. So between 2012 and 2013, more Americans were killed by their own appendixes than rifles. We will also point out that assault weapons are a subset of rifles, so even less people than this were actually killed by assault weapons.

The other fact is that homicides have actually declined over the last two decades (Pew Research Center), but according to a Pew survey conducted after the Sandy Hook shooting, a little over half of Americans wrongly believe that gun crime is higher today than it was 20 years ago. So it is time that people are made aware of the facts.

The reality is that the issue of gun violence will not be tackled by a ban on assault weapons. Just like in the 1990's and early 2000's, this will make little difference.

David M. Kennedy (the director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice) has made the argument that poverty is a major cause of gun violence. He also says, a closer look at the social networks of neighborhoods most afflicted, often show that only a small number of men drive most of the violence. Identify these men, change their behavior, and it’s possible to have an immediate impact (New York Times).

Another issue is that of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, and the over prescribing of pharmaceutical drugs. In 2012, at least 35 school shootings or school related acts of violence were committed by those taking or withdrawing from a psychiatric drug. (Aljazeera).

So in the fight against gun violence, a good place to start would be taking measures to fight poverty, and to bring opportunities for education and employment into impoverished areas. Another measure would be to take a good look at the mental health industry, and to see if America truly is doing what it can to treat the mentally ill. That would be a start. But despite all the fear mongering of the media, the assault weapons 'boogie man' only plays a very small role in the overall violence, and banning these weapons would do little, next to nothing, in solving the problem.

 

RELATED ARTICLES

ASSAULT WEAPONS

The Assault Weapons Myth, (New York Times - 9-12-14)

Assault Weapons Report, (Center for American Progress)

Death Statistics for 2013, (CDC)

 

MASS SHOOTERS AND PILLS

Elliot Rodger, like nearly all young killers, was taking psychiatric drugs (Xanax) (Natural News, 6-3-14)

Guns, Mental Illness and Newtown (The Wall Street Journal, 12-18-12)

The Connecticut massacre and America's estrangement from reality (Aljazeera, 12-17-12)

Another School Shooting, Another Psychiatric Drug? Federal Investigation Long Overdue (Citizens Commission On Human Rights International, 7-20-12)